New Article: Explosive Conditioning for MMA

Couple questions for ya Joel.

For Block A you recommend 2 sessions per week. Are blocks B and C also 2 sessions per week?

Also wondering, say someone is not a fighter and is just lifitng weights for their own fitness/enjoyment and wanted to follow a program similar to this to increase their alactic capacity and power, would 2 sessions(assuming question 1s answer is 2) still be optimal or would a person with no other training/competition want to increase the sessions per week to gain the best results?

I.E. do you suggest 2 sessions a week because the fighter would need to spend the rest of his time skill trianing, or would 2x per week be the optimal ammount for someone not doing additional work?

Thx for the help, lookin forward to the book/blog.
 
Interesting concepts. Sounds like a Scott Sonnan stuff, which is interesting.
 
Block B would be either 2 or 3 sessions per week depending on how much volume the fighter can handle and how well they are recovering from their overall training. Remember if you have 3 sessions they wouldn't all be same amount of volume either, some will be higher and some will be lower depending on the overall training schedule.

Since Block C is essentially as specific to the fight as possible most of that work would be in an MMA gym and would typically be 3 sessions per week for most of the block, but I'd usually taper it down to 2 sessions about two weeks out to start to give the athlete's body a chance to recover and be at 100% come fight night.

Someone who isn't doing as much skill training as necessary for MMA could do 3 sessions of alactic power/capacity per week, assuming they are in pretty good shape, for a few weeks at a time, but keep in mind explosive work is still demanding on the CNS regardless of anything else so you wouldn't want to do it for more than 3 weeks or so before unloading a little bit to let the CNS recover from the higher volume work. Most people could probably do two blocks of 3 weeks high volume, 1 week low volume, in a row before needing to take a longer break.

Writing books takes forever, especially when you have athletes to train and a business to run, but I'll have a website up fairly soon.
 
EZA were you in Japan today?
After his fight Sakurai called some dude on the ring. Was it you?
 
Yes I just got back from Japan and yes that was me Sakurai called up into the ring. I had no idea he was going to do that and had no idea what he had just said in Japanese or what he was expecting me to say so I was totally unprepared. I thought he looked a bit sluggish the first round and should have been throwing more combinations and moving around a lot more than he was, but he did win the fight and controlled the second round and landed far more shots than Hironaka did.

As far as the book, I've decided I'm going to release it in sections rather than doing the whole thing at once because that would take a year to write. I'm almost ready to have my new website up, should by by the end of the week or so, and then I'll post more info about it then. There's a lot of fights I'm training guys for, but I'm working on the book as much as possible. Stay tuned.
 
EZA said:
Yes I just got back from Japan and yes that was me Sakurai called up into the ring. I had no idea he was going to do that and had no idea what he had just said in Japanese or what he was expecting me to say so I was totally unprepared. I thought he looked a bit sluggish the first round and should have been throwing more combinations and moving around a lot more than he was, but he did win the fight and controlled the second round and landed far more shots than Hironaka did.

As far as the book, I've decided I'm going to release it in sections rather than doing the whole thing at once because that would take a year to write. I'm almost ready to have my new website up, should by by the end of the week or so, and then I'll post more info about it then. There's a lot of fights I'm training guys for, but I'm working on the book as much as possible. Stay tuned.
Click to expand...

I thought Sakurai looked great. A vely long cry from his last Shooto performance.
But yeah, it was funny I thought "who's this guy?" I think everyone else was pretty puzzled too. My wife is Japanese and she had no idea.
Then I remember you saying you trained Sakurai and made some kind of connection.
But you look way different than I had imagined. For some reason I thought you were short, old and wore glasses! Must be the "mad scientist" impression you give.
 
Sakurai looked much better in the second round than the first, but he still wasn't moving his feet enough and wasn't throwing enough combinations. He said himself he felt heavy the first round and wasn't moving as well for whatever reason. He definitely looked better than in shooto but he's still capable of fighting better than he did that night.

I assumed he had said in Japanese who I was and why he was giving me the microphone so I didn't introduce myself, but apparently he didn't so I'm sure everyone was wondering who I was and why I was talking. I may be a "mad scientist" when it comes to strength and conditioning, but I'm not that old, I'm 6'3 and I have 20/20 vision. If you live in Tokyo and train in MMA you should check out Sakurai's gym, I believe he has one in the city and one in Iburaki.
 
nice article

very very nice. Ill have to try some stuff
 
EZA said:
Sakurai looked much better in the second round than the first, but he still wasn't moving his feet enough and wasn't throwing enough combinations. He said himself he felt heavy the first round and wasn't moving as well for whatever reason. He definitely looked better than in shooto but he's still capable of fighting better than he did that night.

I assumed he had said in Japanese who I was and why he was giving me the microphone so I didn't introduce myself, but apparently he didn't so I'm sure everyone was wondering who I was and why I was talking. I may be a "mad scientist" when it comes to strength and conditioning, but I'm not that old, I'm 6'3 and I have 20/20 vision. If you live in Tokyo and train in MMA you should check out Sakurai's gym, I believe he has one in the city and one in Iburaki.
Click to expand...

Apparently he just said that you helped him out or something.
But you man are a bit of a perfectionist. Stuff like "feeling heavy" happens in a fight. Nerves, the guy hitting harder than you had expected - anything.
I just thought you did a great job and am definitely going to buy your book - sherdog discount at all?
Keep up the good work!
 
EZA,

Hope you haven't already answered this question.

What are some examples of Active rest that could be used besides shadow boxing?
Great info and explanations
 
Other examples of active rest that can be used are slow jogging, jumping rope, riding a stationary bike, lightweight sled dragging, light dumbbell lifts, etc. Any activity that's low to moderate intensity that increases blood flow can be used for active recovery.
 
EZA, got another question if you would like to answer!

If I were 8 weeks out from a 3X3 MMA fight what would be the best structure for a program using these theories on a weekly basis. Would Part A (max strength) 2 days per week, 2 days per wk endurance (HR 130-145), 1 day per wk shorter higher intensity (HR 4rdX3min @ 175-180 high; 120-130 rest), and 5 days per week technique, grappling, sparring, etc., work for the first 3-4 weeks. Or would this lead to overtraining and reaching an early peak?

Thanks for the last answer!
 
I have no idea what the best structure for you would be to be honest. Without knowing anything about your training history, overall training program, diet and supplement plan, curent strengths and weaknesses determined through specific evaluations, etc. I'd just be throwing darts at a wall offering any specific training advice. Training the right way is a very individualized thing, the methods and theories I've laid out here are the tools, putting together a program is a matter of knowing how to use the right tools at the right time and that's determined completely on an individual basis.
 
Definitely understand that!

I think I have it down. However, I think it is better to have an outside eye assess any program. For me it is easy to over plan and therefore over train.

love the read. Thanks
 
The website should be up by Monday of next week, I have something up but I have to redo the site with a newer version of the content manager I use in order to get the forum and the site's user registration system working together. I'll post on here as soon as it's up and running.

On another note, Chris Leben and Spencer Fisher are both looking great, I'm excited for their fights in the upcoming weeks. I think you're going to see Leben look the best he ever has.
 
How long have you been working with Leben? he has shown marked improvement as of late in his performances
 
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